"Listen to me in your turn, friend," the Colonel answered, in a mournful voice. "What you have just said to me I knew as well as you do. I have felt for a long time past that the ground trembles beneath our feet, and that we shall ere long be swallowed up by the revolution; I therefore form no illusion to the fate that awaits us. But I am a soldier, my friend, I have taken an oath: that oath I must keep, at all risks. Moreover, I am a Mexican—do not forget that fact; I must, therefore, regard this question from a point of view diametrically opposed to yours. Besides," he added, with feigned gaiety, "we are not yet in the state you imagine. You have certainly taken from us a few pueblos, but we still have the towns, and hold the sea. You sing victory too soon; the Texan revolution is as yet only in the state of insurrection. At a later date, when it holds a strong town, and its government is constituted, we shall see what is to be done; but for the present there is no cause to despair, my friend, and you have not made the progress you fancy."
"Perhaps so," the Jaguar answered, with an equivocal accent that caused the Colonel to reflect. "I thought it my duty to speak to you as a friend, and give you some disinterested advice; if you will not take it, you are quite at liberty to neglect it."
"Do not feel annoyed; my remarks can have nothing to wound your feelings. I had no intention of vexing you when I spoke as I did. But put yourself for a moment in my place; if I had made you the same proposals you offered me, what would your answer have been?"
"I should have refused, by Heaven!" the young man exclaimed, impetuously.
The Colonel began laughing.
"Well, I acted as you would have done. What harm do you see in that?"
"That is true; you were right, and I am an ass! Forgive me, my friend. Besides, was it not agreed that political questions should never separate us? Let us, therefore, return to the object of our interview, which is of much greater importance to us, and temporarily leave the Mexicans and Texans to settle matters as they can."
For some minutes the Colonel's eyes had been fixed on the sea, and he had listened to his friend's remarks with a very absent air.
"Why," he suddenly said, "look there, my friend."
"What is it?"